In the Ring with Kirstein
by 30SecondsToAnime
Summary: Modern AU, Jean is a boxing prodigy, who thinks everything is his to own. Reader is a newbie boxer, slowly making her way up the female boxing hierarchy. When she moves into Jean's gym fireworks, tension, shit eating grins, some bloodied knuckles and faces ensue. And then there's Eren. Was originally only jean x reader but then I wrote a scene and couldn't let it go.
_A/N: Everyone is 20, unless stated otherwise, and you are 19._

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You walk into your new gym. The sound of fist hitting punching bags,speed bags, shuffling feet, quick breaths and trainers shouting put you at ease. As an amateur welterweight you'd only dreamt of this place. 104th was the place all rising boxers wanted to get into. Especially in Trost and here you were. You stand in the doorway, your body frozen as you watch everything happening in the gym. A tap on your shoulder brings you out of the haze. Turning you find yourself face to face with a relatively attractive guy. His hair cut short, blue eyes that sparkle with a deep intensity and some of the cutest dimples you've ever seen.

"You must be the new girl."

"Yeah and I've got a name." He laughs at your comment, putting his hands up in mock surrender.

"My bad, Annie did say you'd have no trouble fitting right in." You blush, you'd only met Annie once and it was all a bloody blur. So you hoped today you could make a better impression.

"My name's (F/N) by the way." He smiles and takes your hand.

"Nice to meet you (F/N). I'm Eren. Eren Jaeger."

You all but faint. You knew that the 104th had a squad made up of Trost legends, but you never thought you'd actually meet one of them on your first day.

"Eren Jaeger! Oh my gosh oh my gosh you're like a legend. Not even like you are a legend. You're one of the world's best amateur boxers. One of the originals of the first 104th squad. Not to mention when you did make it big you, you were like-"

"Woah, woah slow down slow down. I know all of this I was there I lived it. It's nice you know so much about me but what about you. Tell me about yourself."

"Well there's not much to tell. I mean I'm good but..." He looks at you with those eyes and you feel yourself open up like a box. You ready yourself to bare it all, but you don't get the chance. A woman about the same age as Eren (if you remember correctly he's about 20) walks by and then turns around and walks back towards you.

"Jaeger stop bothering the newbie. Newbie come with me." You watch as Eren gives a small farewell wave before turning and heading towards what you can only assume is the men's locker room. You follow the woman who you could only assume was Annie to where a tall, brown haired and very freckled woman waits. There are brief introductions during which you introduce yourself to your new trainer. Her name's Ymir and apparently she grew up and boxed with rest of the original 104th squad. This was crazy.

She had you do a routine warm up. You start with joint rotations in your fingers all the way up to your head and legs. Each circular motion loosening you up. After you warm your joints you skip rope, getting your blood going and heart pumping. At the end of the 5 minutes you begin your stretches. Starting with neck turns and working your way down your body to end with ankle bounces. Having never actually done a complete warm up from start to finish you feel fatigued by the time you finish stretching. Ymir sensing your lack of stamina sends you to get water and your hands wrapped before starting your specific warm ups.

You've just finished having your hands wrapped by Armin who at first glance you never would've thought was actually an original 104th. As you make your way back to Ymir you practice your shuffle. You lose your balance and bump into someone. Quickly gathering yourself you start to apologize but stop.

You've never seen such an intense color in someone's eyes. Almost like fresh honey, but with the capability to turn as hard as gold. You take in a breath.

"I think you were going to apologize. " His words bring you back from your thoughts.

"..."

"A little starstruck are we? How'd you get in here anyway, this gym is for boxers only not fans." The tone in his voice fires you up.

"I'm not a fan, I'm a boxer - prick. " He looks you over sizing you up, stopping at your wrapped hands.

"Pff you've got to be joking. There's no way Annie let _**you**_ in here." Feeling attacked you pull yourself up to your true height. At 5'9 you towered over most girls and this douche only had 3 inches on you if that.

"Well she did. So if you've got a problem with it horse face we can handle it inside the ring." He laughs. Laughs straight in your face. You've never felt so belittled in your life.

"Darling you wouldn't last 5 minutes in the ring with me." He pushes past you.

Mistake one.

You swing your leg out, angling your ankle so that it catches his effectively tripping him. Everything in the gym goes quiet. You stand there a smug expression on your face. Horse face rolls himself over and faces you. By the look and color of his face: he's pissed. He gets back up.

Mistake two.

You jab at his face, clipping his jaw. A bead of blood forms on his lip, he brushes it away taking up his stance. You should have paid more attention. You both shuffle for what feels like minutes, when out of nowhere a flurry of hooks come for you. You manage to slip a couple of them, but one gets you right in the face. The pain is instant, you feel the blood start to flow. You keep your eyes open, knowing that if you close them you're done. You take your counter, realizing too late that his stance mirrors yours. 'He's a Southpaw!' You instantly pull back. You've never fought a southpaw and from the looks of it horse face was one hell of a boxer. Taking your lapse in confidence he advances, dealing out more jabs than you can count. You pull your arms up in front of your face, trying to block them as best you can. When it stops you slowly pull them down- stupid move. You don't have time to try and block his uppercut, instead a hand stops it mid swing.

"You know Kirstein, you're the reason no one wants to train here anymore." Horse face, looks towards Eren. Hate and bloodlust written all over his face. Yanking his arm out of his grasp horse face glares down at you.

"That's a lie and you know it Jaeger. I'm the reason everyone wants to train here." He storms off, an angelic looking freckled man following after him. Eren turns to you, the anger that was once there quickly being replaced with concern.

"(F/N) your nose." He reaches towards it but stops when you flinch away. You feel your nose, squinting at the pain- horse face or Kirstein had definitely broken it.

"Eren get me a towel and a chair. I'm going to need to sit for this." He looks at you skeptically before nodding and getting what you had asked for. You take the towel and sit down. He crouches nearby. Blowing your nose right now is one of the most painful experiences you've ever had to endure. But not as bad as the pain you were about to feel following your next actions. You make a triangle with both hands, placing all four finger pads against one another, with the palms sloping away from one another. Placing the tip of the triangle on your nose you take a deep breath in through your mouth. Eren finally realizing what you're about to do starts to object.

"(F/N) I don't think that's a good idea. As a matter of fact that's a horrible idea-" You exhale mid sentence through your mouth bringing your palms together until your hands are molded snugly around your nose. And then you slowly drag your hands straight down towards your chin in as straight of a line possible considering the circumstances. You scream, the pain almost making you black out. But you hold yourself together.

"Get me some ice please. Eren get me ice!" Your voice starts to get higher as the pain begins to set in. He hurries towards the back. He's back before you know it and you gingerly place the ice on your nose.

"That's better. Thanks." You look up and start to blush. He's staring so intently at you, you can't help it.

"I'm trying to decide if I want to kiss you or kick your ass out of the gym." Your blush intensifies.

"Kick her ass out? No way. She's my hero." You turn and look and see a bald guy standing not too far away.

"No one has ever given Jean that hard of time before. It's about time too, the little bitch has been feeding his ego nonstop since he's gone pro." He catches your look and laughs a little.

"You just figured it out didn't you."

"Kirstein… Jean. Jean Kirstein? Oh shit, someone please tell me that I didn't just try to go head-to-head with the undisputed middleweight champ."

Eren looks at you and that's all the conformation you need. If you could have you would've buried your face in your hands. But as it was you just closed your eyes and shook your head. When you finish wallowing in your absolute stupidity you catch the bald guys eye.

"Oh right, I forgot to introduce myself, I'm Connie Springer. One of the original 104th."

"I know who you are." You manage to squeak out.

"That was stupid. Going up against Jean on your first day." You blanch at the voice and crane your head to look at Annie. She has her arms folded and she doesn't look too happy.

"Give her a break Annie, Jean was asking for it."

"Shut up Jaeger, you know the rules. No fighting in the gym unless it's a scheduled practice match. And as far as I'm aware I'm the only one who makes and approves them and that was definitely not on my list of approvals." He backs down at her words. She walks towards you and you feel your insides start to die. You'd gone and done it. Ruined any chance you had at making it big all because you couldn't keep yourself in check.

"However, I've got to say as a newbie you stood your own. You even clipped him in the beginning although I'd hardly call it fair." You feel yourself relax, you weren't getting kicked out.

"Alright then, Jaeger take her up to the dorms and show her around," she turns to the rest of the gym who had quietly gone back to work after you and horse face's bout, "and as for the rest of you I'll see you bright and early. I've got a couple announcements to make." Everyone begins to break. Those who don't live at the gym pack their things up. Eren grabs your hand and you pull yourself up. He starts walking and turns to look at you a smile on his face- you suddenly feel a lot better.

"We're going to be neighbors." You smile at him.

"Oooo, Eren's got it bad for the new girl!"

"Connie shut the fuck up before I beat your ass!"

"Were you not paying attention to Annie? Oh right you were too busy admiring your new girlfriend!" You watch as he laughs and walks out of the gym doors.

"I thought all the originals and trainees live here." Eren looks back at you and nods his head.

"We do, he just likes to go out after training. He'll be back before curfew."

"We have a curfew?"

"Haha, you've got a lot to learn newbie. Good thing I'm looking after you." His wink sends unexplainable butterflies into your stomach and you can feel your heart rate speed up.

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 _A/N: This is a little drabble I've been working on, I hope you enjoyed it! Let me know what you think/what I can do better next time (please I need the critique). Also I love writing Connie, he's just so much fun._


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